Browser application programs are often used to access information through the Internet or through company intranets. Users often have multiple pages displayed at any time. These pages may be from one web site, or from multiple web sites. To facilitate switching between multiple pages, tabbed browsers may be used.
Tabbed browsers generally allow programs on undisplayed web pages to continue processing while the tab holding that web page is inactive. This sometimes leads to items such as dialog boxes or other user interface elements to be presented to the user that are generated from web pages that are not currently being used, thus interrupting the user from his or her browsing experience in the web page currently being viewed.
For example, a page the user is not currently viewing may pop up a dialog box asking for a user name and password and the user may think the dialog box is from the currently active tab. This could lead to incorrect information being entered, or worse, a malicious site gaining access to valid username and password information for another site. Aside from those kinds of risks, it typically leads to a poor user experience to have dialog boxes from inactive tabs displayed, interrupting what the user is doing on the currently active, and viewed web page. Alternatively, a browser may switch tabs to one that is trying to display a dialog box. This may also lead to a poor user experience, since the user may not notice that the active tab has changed.